Happily ever after?
by Miss Avund
Summary: "Mother, why do muggle-children get so beautiful stories with happy endings when I don't? It's unfair." Andromeda said. "I want to be a muggle!"
1. Once upon a time

"Mother, when I grow up I want to be a princess. I want to attend a ball and wear beautiful gowns and find my own prince." Andromeda spun around like a ballet dancer beside her mother who sat by the mirror putting on make-up.

"Don't be such a muggle-lover, Andy. You forget we are the noble Black family, with pure blood in each artery. That is a thousand times better than any princess." Druella smiled a strained smile at her middle daughter. Foolish girl who didn't understand, she thought before she turned back to her own reflection. But she wasn't more than five years old, hopefully she did she get some sense before she went to Hogwarts.

"Silly mom!" She giggled and her eyes sparkled when she dreamed away to a place far away. "We don't get castes or ride into the sunset with a prince. I want all the birds to sing their most beautiful song every time I walk outdoor."

"Where do you get all those thoughts from?" Druella herself had absolutely not said a word about any prince to her daughter and her husband had certainly not given her such ideas. Cygnus barley talked with the kids as it was and Bella had never mentioned something near balls or princesses.

"Well, there are so many muggle-fairytales about princes and princesses. Almost everyone ends with a happy ending, and those who don't, I won't read…" chattered Andy, overjoyed because her mother had showed interest in what she talked about.

Druella was not amused. She felt how it crept in the skin when her nice, pureblood, little girl talked about these things. She had put down the hairbrush and turned to her daughter again. She grabbed Andromeda's arm firmly so that the girl would stop hopping around ridiculously like that.  
With coldness in her voice and a sharp glance she hissed "Andromeda, sweetheart, where did you get those fairytales from?"

The girl chose to ignore the question, she wasn't done telling yet.

"Why do muggle-children get so beautiful stories with happy endings when I don't? It's unfair." she whined instead. "I want to be a muggle!"

"Andromeda, that's enough!" What if someone found out about all this, what a shame it would be to the family. Not to mention Cygnus, he would be outrages if he heard something like this. Only Merlin knew what her husband would do then. She had to beat this out of her daughter on her own.

The mother raised her hand, hesitated for just a moment before she hit her daughter over the cheek. A red imprint started to be visible.

"I ask one more time. Where do you get those fairytales from?" she said and with the hard grip around the arm she shook the little girl.

Andy began to be scared for real, this was not a game. It was important stuff and she had to answer correct. Her voice trembled when she answered. "Uncle gave me a storybook."

It wasn't the right responds because her mother's nail dug even deeper into her skin. Would it start to bleed or just leave some bruises? Would the red imprint always be on her cheek?

"Mum, my arm. It hurt. Please, let me go" she said sobbing.

Druella didn't let her go. "I do not want you to read that. You'll get stupid. You can't talk about it or even think about it, you hear me?" She screamed in her daughters face and shook Andy once again, more violent this time.

Andromeda nodded and only when she wept a "sorry" did Druella released her.

**A/N: This is my first fanficton in English (the term "fanfiction" means that I don't own anything). I would like to thank my friend (Sara) who helped me with the translation and to my fantastic beta-reader: **_**DarkGarnetRose.**_

**I did a mistake withe the name of Andromedas mother, sorry for that. It is right now but if you find som error, tell me and I'll be very greatful.**

**Tell me what you think, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter (which I don't know when I will publish****…).**

**Thanx for reading!**


	2. Far, far away

The room had become a mess. All the drawers were pulled out and stuff was thrown on the floor. Druella searched feverishly for the stupid book, she had to find it before her husband came home. Andy stood in the doorway, too afraid to move.

"Where are you hiding it?" the mother screamed once she had looked everywhere for the fourth time.

Andromeda stood just as silent as before, she had lowered her glance to avoid seeing her mother destroy her room and everything in it.

Druella walked up to her child, grabbed the girl's hair and pulled on it. A heartrending shout came from the daughter.

"Where's the bloody book?"

Andromeda tried to say something beside her pain-provoked lamentation. It took some time but eventually she pointed towards a corner where one of the floorboards was loose. Her mother let go of her hair and some tufts of hair sunk to the floor.

The mother did eventually find the book, with the colorful book cover and beautiful illustrations inside.

She turned a page haphazardly. On the side was a girl in the woods who was talking with some little animals. They didn't move an inch, how weak.

Druella stroked her hand over the page. So it is this that has destroyed Andromeda, she said to herself. She looked at Andy for a moment before she took hold to dozens of pages and ripped them out with determination.

"Mum! Please! I won't read them, I promise. J-just don't break it. Please." Tears had begun to break through the girl's eyes.

"Don't whine 'Dromeda, it does not fit for a lady." Her mother left the room with the book and the ripped out pages, but Andy took her time. She wiped off the tears on her sleeves before she followed with heavy steps.

When she entered the kitchen Druella was in front of the fireplace and was throwing the book pages in to the flames. She ripped out even more pages. More fuel to the fire.

Andromeda tried to hold back her tears. If she was strong and brave maybe her mother let her keep at least one story. She hoped in vain.

Druella continued until there wasn't anything left to tear out and the only thing she had in her hands was the empty book cover.

"C-can I keep that?" Andy's voice sounded weak and quivered a bit but her mother didn't say a word before she threw the covers in the fire, too.

The fire swallowed it all, every word, every picture and with them the girls dreams and hopes.

Lucretia stood up, brushed off some dust from her cloths.

"It was for your own good." With those words she leaved the kitchen.

Andromeda watched as the book burned up till only a pile of ashes was left. One tear fell down on her cheek before she reached into the fireplace and hoped she could save something.

The ashes were still warm.

She hoped there would be something, anything, among the dust. Maybe, maybe she could enchant it, since she was actually a witch. She closed her eyes hard and wished her mother had never found the book. If she could get time to reverse she would do so. She wouldn't mentioned any fairytales at all.

The ashes were still there, just as burned up as ever.

Andromeda saw at the pile with empty eyes. How could something so beautiful and innocent as fairytales burn so easy?

Her mother had told her it was much better to be a Black then a princess. It couldn't be right, because Andy felt so lost and insignificant.

Then she saw it.

A white corner pitched up from all the black. A piece of paper had avoided the flames, it wasn't bigger then her finger but she could see the text clearly.

It was a miracle… or maybe magic. Fairytales could exist, dreams could be real and maybe she would one day find her prince.

'Mum will never know', she thought when she read the words on the rescure paper.

… _and they lived happily ever after. The end._

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**A/N**

******First; a big thank you to my Betareader: _DarkGarnetRose_**

**Tell me what you think about this story, alert it, add it to favorites or whatever you want and please read my next chapter and other story.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Happily ever after

The war was over!

She sat still a moment and just took in the words. The war was over. It was this moment that they had waited for. It was those words they had been listening for on the radio, for hours, for months.

Andromeda looked at her husband Ted. He had been sitting just as still as she but a smile had started to sneak up in the corners of his mouth. Then he started to laugh, that beautiful, clear laugh she had fallen in love with at Hogwarts. The laugh that she hadn't heard the last few weeks because they had nothing to be happy about. Now he laughed in relief, they had survived, all three of them.

She looked down at her daughter she had in her lap. The child's hair had been brown, a little bit lighter than her own, ever since they had packed their things and left their old home. For almost a half year had they been on the escape from Death Eaters and muggle-haters. Now had Nymphadora's (or Dora's) hair changed color, as it used to. Even if she wasn't more than eight she was still a skilled Metamorphmagus. Her hair lit up with bright, unnatural colors and her eyes sparkled in gold. Soon Dora's laughter rang also, a light girly laugh.

Andy threw her arms around her husband and daughter with tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. They were alive and the war was over.

They were in a little house in the middle of a forest, the family were the only people in several miles. In the living room they had no more than a fireplace, the radio on the floor and an old, worn out, small couch in which Andy sat in and Ted sat on the armrest.

It was so little, so very simple but it was her world. All her fairytale dreams had come true, how silly and surreal her mother had thought about they were.

Ted had been her dream prince and she could clearly remember that night a long time ago, when he had waited for her outside her window with her broom. He had looked at her like she was his princess, the girl of his dreams, and he would give up his whole kingdom just to be with her. (Which was a bit ironic, since it was _she_ who gave up the name Black for _him_.) That night they had flown away on a broom each with the moon above and their happy ending ahead of them.

Now they were queen and king in their own world and each other's eyes, and Dora their beloved little princess.

The house may not have more than two rooms but everything was perfect in that moment. Andromeda was sitting on her throne in her castle, because that's what it felt like. She could never wish for more.

She still had the little paper note in her pocket, from the nightmare that was her childhood memory. The edges might have been burn but she could still read the text clearer than ever.

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**A/N**

******A big thank you to my wonderful Betareader: _DarkGarnetRose_**

**Please tell me what you think about this story, alert it, add it to favorites and please read my other story. It will take some time 'till next chapter but I'm still active, promise.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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